Analgesia

We reel them in with Ritalin,
(Big Pharma pockets the profit)
Prozac and Amphetamine –
it gets so hard to come off it.

Increasing dependency doses,
the playground exchange of bright sweets;
damned by a dual diagnosis,
the endless prescription repeats.

A bullet-proof vest to manage stress
is obligatory in these quarters:
it’s the weight you can’t get off your chest
when there are statins in the waters.

In theatre critical poses
are struck at an unwilling heart;
before the final curtain closes
you’ll need permission to depart.

We’re excluding human weakness
from our analgesic Eden
where all suffering is a sickness
and susceptible to treatment.

About This Poem

Editing Stage: Editing - polished draft

About the Author

Country/Region: England

Favorite Poets: John Cooper Clarke , Fleur Adcock , Carol Anne Duffy , Derek Mahon

Comments

neopoet

5 months 1 week ago

Neopoet AI 5-29-23 version

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Triskelion

5 months 1 week ago

...I enjoyed the meter and rhyming in this poem, at least in the opening stanzas. It seemed to wobble a bit toward the end, though. I'm guessing that this frames suffering caused by others is considered a treatable medical condition, rather than admit / adjust the real problem? I've been wrong before, though.

Thomas

Triskelion

5 months 1 week ago

Oh,

..and I think statins is a typo? Stains, perhaps?

Thomas

Ray Miller

5 months 1 week ago

Analgesia

I know what you mean about the metre. Statins isn't a typo, they are used to lower cholesterol. Some doctors recommend they are added to tap-water. The poem is basically decrying the over-medicalisation of everyday life.